Commentaries on The Chainmail Sith Lord and The Enchanted Woods
by Ninjer-8492
Summary: A short "Old Republic" Story. How can a book be evil yet a Jedi cannot sense it? A report read by Satele Shan attempts to answer that question as it explores the history of a book that may or may not be cursed. But does even reading about the book hold the same danger?


Jedi Council Report #146798

Archeologist Gera Morris, Jedi Knight

PHD Qualification in Occult Practice, Cult History

Subject: The purpose of this report is to address concerns regarding the Incident on Alderaan, in which Republic Authorities responded to reports of unusual activity in Alderaan's woodland area and to which a team of policeman with trained Kath Hounds, accompanied a Jedi Consular to one of the areas of disturbance. Upon discovery of (Information Restricted To Satele Shan) the Consular is reported to have (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) and descended the hilly area with four surviving policeman and the remains of the story.

While such incidents are not normally the purview of the Archeology Corps, the highly unusual nature of the Consular's experience during his debriefing in which he claimed to have partaken in (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) and the corroboration of surviving police officers confirm that the incident and more importantly, the way the Consular described it, has been confirmed by multiple sources as being truthful. Despite the fact that many fiercely debated whether or not this report, a report which will undoubtedly be censored many times over should even be preserved, it was ultimately felt that it is better to have this report and not require it for future reference against future incidents such as this than to have desperate need of it only to find all mention of it wiped from history due to controversy. Many Masters felt that what happened in the both the woods and the cave was simple crime (albeit heinous) and nothing more. From a certain point of view this assertion is entirely correct. At no point was any evidence of the Dark Side encountered. The area in which said incident took place was said to be free of it. The Consular claims to have not felt anything but the simple evil that is inherent to the scale of crimes like this.

But, and I hope the wise Masters shall forgive me for resorting to cliche, but the devil is in the details. The highly unusual manner in which incidents progressed from point A to point B and the reactions of every participant involved in the Incident, have prompted other Masters, not as bound to the traditional interpretations of what constitutes insidious threats to public safety, have declared that this incident sets a dangerous precedent, and more research must be devoted to the phenomena that is capable of causing what occurred on Alderaan.

To the point the following is a commentary and thorough examination of the text the Consular retrieved from the woods. The text in question, "The Chainmail Sith Lord and the Enchanted Woods."

Let it be said here and now, that after every conceivable examination of said text has yielded the same conclusion: The text is not Sith in origin. The text has no Dark Side energy emanating from it. There is no taint.

There is no taint and yet people are dead.

The text has it's roots in the folktales of Alderaan, and was adapted into the final anthology of a writer who wrote books for children. The Anthology "Book of the Flaming Swords," was published posthumously. The Book is a radical departure from the author's previous work, and indeed a copy was difficult to come by, due to the controversy surrounding the author's death, and the accusations made by University trained professor Helmut Landds that the Book of the Flaming Swords is a grimoire, constructed metaphysically as a booby trap. I would like to note that I take serious issue with most of said professors claims. The book, after it's connection to the story text recovered from Alderaan was established, was also examined thoroughly. And as before, no dark energy was found to be present. What is not in dispute is that the Book of the Flaming Swords is indeed a grimoire.

How do we explain a book that has no taint and yet several people are dead?

My examination of the Recovered Text (Henceforth known as TEXT 404098) is as follows. I state that everything I write is truthful and free of personal bias.

HISTORY OF THE TEXT

"The Chainmail Sith Lord and The Enchanted Woods" has it's roots in high Alderaanian Culture, and began circulating across the planet circa four hundred years ago, and began to spread outward to outer rim colonies via Alderaanian immigrants. The original tale is told in archaic basic, and speaks of a wounded Sith Lord, who flees into strange woods to escape his Jedi Pursuer and the slew of angry guard's from a hamlet the Sith attacked. The Sith Lord encounters strange horrors and flees ever deeper into the woods, until his Pursuers catch him, but not before fighting off the woodlands mad inhabitants. The story ends in a cave, with the Sith Lord dragged off into a mysterious darkness.

The story alters around two hundred years ago, though it is not precisely known when the variation to the tale was introduced nor who made it. We may never know who altered it. The second version has the Sith Lord venture into the woods to hunt a Jedi, but his experience progressively becomes more surreal and bizarre until the Sith is finally forced to abandon his quest to avoid meeting whatever fate befell his quarry, and also ends in a cave after he is forced to run from a great beast. As in the original, the Sith Lord is dragged off into a mysterious darkness. The second version was adapted for the holo and was a smash hit when it premiered at White Hourglass Theater Hall, though strangely copies of the film are almost impossible to come by due to the studio in which the master copy was stored burning to the ground soon after the premiere. Further investigation uncovered that people who have copies have (Restricted by order of Satele Shan)

The third version (The one that was adapted into the Book of The Flaming Swords.) is without precedent, neither matching the tone of the original two versions (In sense this makes the events described in the text far more sinister) nor the length, which was relatively short. The Chainmail Sith Lord in this version ventures into the woods after hearing of mysterious phenomena and wishing to see for himself.

The story attains ambiguity as to whether or not the woods are truly enchanted, and the Sith Lord encounters a number of unusual Characters that possess an ambiguous supernatural nature. One, for example, claims to be a sorceress with an unusual form of Necromancy in which the dead might live on through her. Another, a Jedi trapped in the woods, claims to be possessed by his mother. A third is a living skeleton, imprisoned in his current form by a treacherous understudy. The Sith Lord is told that all are venturing to a cave where they might be cleansed of their maladies. The Sith Lord decides to make his way to the cave for reasons all his own besides power.

What makes the text unusual besides the greatly expanded plot are the way the Sith Lord interacts with both his environment and the characters he encounters. The text is heavily riddled with coded dialogue on the nature of how ideas spread and how they can be germinated. The Sith Lord, acting on this, begins to be suspicious about the nature of the cave that he is traveling to: Is it a cave that can remove whatever maladies trouble you? Or simply a cave that has gained "power" through being spoken of as magical. The Sith Lord himself expresses confusion about this in a particular passage:

"O'er mountains and high pines have I crept past

To seeketh a cave that promises remedy

Yet though I slay my foes that block my way

My two-handed blade gleaming with the red fire o' hate

Such power is never just for the hand of strength

To take as it pleases.

My own sins and maledictions compelling me to venture to this mouth

The Mouth of the Earth, about whom a great many things are said, but hardly a witness."

-Passage 12 C, located next to platelet 12 (The Sith Lord parlays with the Mad Padawan, artist unknown)

ADDENDUM: Knight Chasin has been placed in a medically induced coma following his examination of platelet twelve. Jedi Healer claims he was (Restricted by Order of Satele Shan) in the groves of Tython when he was found, chattering to himself and bleeding heavily after multiple lacerations, all self inflicted, one lightsaber wound. Chasin was attempting to (Restricted by Order of Satele Shan) and after cutting it off claimed he had found enlightenment before fainting. Text was heavily examined after this, but the conclusions were the same as before. No taint. It is unknown what Chasin was attempting to do inside of (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) Reports say he had not been feeling well and had complained of nightmares even before examining text for first time. Jedi Healers detected unknown growth in cranial cavity that was not there two days ago. Possible bacterial infections being investigated. Heavily armed guard's are stationed outside his hospital room.

The Passage above indicates the ambiguity that permeates the whole tale, and the Sith Lord finds himself experimenting with how to germinate ideas in others to influence them. The Sorceress tells him, under no uncertain terms, that the germination of ideas must begin with the self and be enacted indirectly. The more ambiguous the origins of an idea or thought, the more time it has for certain facts to be mutated or lost, the stronger an idea will grow in the subconscious.

The Sorceress herself is of interest as this is not the only tale she appears in from the book. Unlike the Sith clad in-as the tale describes-"A coat of black mail, dark and burnt, and with each interlocked ring was inscribed a blasphemy" The Sorceress has no ancient tale, and appears to have been created purely for the anthology. yet she has been integrated so well into it and other tales one can hardly notice the difference, leading some analysts to believe she serves as something of a cipher not just to this one particular tale, but to the book as well. The subject of the Sorceress character will be described in a later section.

ANALYSIS OF THE CHAINMAIL SITH LORD

The Sith Lord subsequently described in every version of the tale thus far is clearly a Marauder. He is rarely shown using Force Powers, preferring to deal with threats using a lightsaber thus described:

"Metal dark and pitted, crafted of Iron quenched in the blood

Of a thousand soldiers reciting his injustices, made a great

Two-Hander with an ashen-hued grip and pommel of his beloved

Who betrayed him to the Old Witch Men of The Jedi

That fabled Cult with blades of Sky, mouthing their

Condemnation of all they see wicked."

-Passage 9A, Page Six

ADDENDUM: Text is incomplete. Lower half of the page recovered from Alderaan was found torn off following break in of archives. No known suspects. I was required to consult a copy of the text from the Book itself. What the Sith Lord does to the Jedi in the following passage is (Restricted by order of Satele Shan.)

This Passage, in it's strange verse, is the only insight we obtain into The Sith Lord's history. The story makes no effort to expand on it, as it isn't really important beyond providing a minimal level of characterization and background. What is interesting is how this version of the Chainmail Sith Lord acts in the Woods, whose location is not listed (It is here that this Archeologist began to become suspicious. Repeatedly the text makes reference to the germination of ideas, and the author, using the sorceress as a mouth piece, posits that the best manner in which to do this is to be vague as possible when practicing what the text calls "Dark Dissemination." This term is also part of the title in another of the Book's stories "The Forbidden Art of Dark Dissemination." which I will also go into length should the council permit)

ADDENDUM: Permission denied by order of Gnost Dural, who will personally oversee all further investigations in this matter after report is concluded and stored.

I have already expressed to Grandmaster Shan my suspicions regarding the theme of running meta commentary both within the text itself on the nature of ideological spread and the effect the ideas presented in the text may have already had. Even this report itself is dissecting the ideas presented. Should anyone else read this report besides myself and the council, some part of what is presented will surely draw curious onlookers to the text proper, thereby creating more incidents beyond Alderaan. Or Dantooine, if we choose to listen to the rumors regarding the scavenger who found a supposedly unholy lightsaber whose design is lifted straight from a platelet in the book itself.

However, even if the curious are NOT drawn to the book, should this report get out, a report which the Council in retrospect did not have to permit recording, then surely suspicions will be raised. If it is not tainted by the Dark Side, some will no doubt question, and everything, including the murder and cannibalism of (Restricted by order of Satele Shan), than why entertain a report about it at all? Are we not giving power to the idea that a book lacking any corruption of the Darkness to fuel tragedy can still fuel malice and evil acts if the rituals undertaken by the characters in the text are performed. If someone for example, gets ahold of this report, would some malicious soul actually believe it? Is that not a very deadly ability?

The Sith Lord Character himself is as troubled as I was, for he says to the character known as the Mad Padawan:

"Egads! 'Tis it so simple? That the sharp edge

Of the thoughts of a man, should find purchase

In maw of another's mind, that it work it's will

Upon both the Ignorant and the True Witch Men

Of both the Holy and Unholy Forces as prayers

Both benign and Imprecatory in their hearts?"

-Passage 26q, located next to Platelet Sixteen (The Sith Lord and The Mad Padawan debate under the Peach Tree of Human Sacrifices and Blasphemies)

The Mad Padawan's answer, as the Council will notice is hardly encouraging.

"Aye. Me thinks the Holy Force and Unholy Force

Which prompted Witch Men to Blood and War

And caused them to brandish blades of Sky

And caused them to brandish blades of Blood

And caused me to brandish a blade

Made from my mother's soul, green like

The sneaky and crafty grasshopper, it's twin

Making my Two-Hander a great scepter

Me thinks it all be the same on other hearts

And the spheres upon which men live and die

The power of the Mind to craft

The heart of Man to beast or saint.

As thine own heart has thus been crafted

But to my heart is forged a ghost to live in me

And through me forever.

-Passage 27q, page six.

Addendum: Following the incident in which Knight Chasin awoke and attacked Master Krig by using his thumbs to (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) all further entries mentioning Knight Chasin's death via (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) into his chest cavity and the connection of this death to an obscure scene in TEXT 404098 will be expunged via order of Gnost Dural. On another note the missing half of the torn page was found on his possession.

Further examination of the Sith Lord character will follow.

ANALYSIS OF THE CHAINMAIL SITH LORD (CONTINUED)

The Sith Lord in version three agrees to allow the Mad Padawan to accompany him, both seemingly as a source of amusement and to debate with him more closely the nature of how much power an idea requires before taking on a life of it's own. The Mad Padawan, apparantly armed with a green saberstaff, agrees to accompany him and enlighten him as to how ideas have power beyond mere instruction, and how insidious they can actually be:

"Twas not long ago that I bore

The same infirmity that troubles thee.

The infirmity of Thoughts as snakes

And whispers and Wyrms,

Wielding their weird wishes

Upon a knave who could scarce comprehend

The act of resurrecting my mother through the

Wielding of her shining sword.

Her soul quenched in my dreams and given edge

By my inner demons, one of whom I see in my mind is a Smithy

A Smithy that hammered her to shape in my minds eye

Golden Locked and Eyes of ocean.

Voice only promising me strength.

Blade only promising me closure

How could I not risk my soul if what the Smithy promised were true?

Even now I hear the words of my demon Smithy:

"Csmtemei Rae Swrena Het"

And upon hearing this, the Sith Lord

For he was by all accounts still

As rational as any of the Witch Men

Bellowed the laugh of a great dragon

And called his strange journeyman

The greatest of all fools and feeble headed:

"Thee listens to dark speeches made by Smithy's who exist not

And views visions that exist not but in thine own self

I have been round the halls of Jedi Chapels.

Have smelled the stank of the real demons

Birthed by the Sith of old.

I tell you that thought such as yours have no power

O'er a real Witch Man such as I and my great Two-Hander,

Joined with the pommel of my beloved, who abandoned me

For the hated cult you say you serve

And whom I am sworn to smash upon the rocks.

The Unholy Force which the foolish Sky-Bladed men reject is more

Than a match for a million mad musings as those

Which course through that wrong head

Upon thine shoulders."

-Passage 35a, located next to platelet 17 (The Sith Lord and the Mad Padawan argue on the flowered path in the Forest. Artist unknown)

ADDENDUM: The text becomes more obscure in it's objective from this point forward. Phrases began to be inserted, including the supposed "Smithy quote" above. The quote turns up both in the platelets upon which all images in the text are inscribed, showing up in the back ground and foreground, woven into the text backward and forward on every page after page twelve, showing up in the margins. This does not show up in the mainstream market text, leading this Archeologist to believe the text on Alderaan is using an older copy. Staring at the platelets themselves looking for the quote appearance when they are deliberately hidden has given me more than one tension headache.

ADDENDUM: Analysis of the vellum like material the text is composed of came back. It's human flesh.

The Sith Lord clearly does not believe that the notion of ideas as described by the Mad Padawan (Mentioned as fair skinned with hair the color of coal). Indeed, for much of the first third of the story he dismisses the notion that the simple act of describing an idea or notion vaguely and inconsistently can have as great a consequence as The Mad Padawan imagines. The Mad Padawan thus counters his argument:

"Thy great Two-Hander blade as seen much use

O'er a notion of a Cave that absolves thee

Of all Sins and Maladies.

And the will of thy wicked brethren

Have killed many for the notion of Superiority.

Speak to me not that something so vague as the Lich called Belief

Is without power or worth.

Without belief in thy vile oath

Without belief in the vile skill with thy blood field sword

Without thy mail encouraging Blasphemy

Written O'er each damned link

Wouldst thee have any power to call thy own?

Come,

Sit with me and perform the Ritual of The Chalice

And I will show thee the power of belief upon the world and thyself.

-Passage 39a next to platelet 17 (Restricted by order of Satele Shan.)

This is one of the first rituals described, and involves (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) while burning incense and drinking (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) This ritual, while perverse, does not have any power beyond the ability to make one nauseous. The ritual does not correspond to any known Sith Practice. One of the Inquisitors we captured was shown this passage. He derided it as a hoax but asked who had composed it, as it was unusually elaborate and detailed for a hoax. He later confessed to having a nightmare about the ritual description and refused to look at any further passages.

ADDENDUM: The shoot to kill orders that the Consular gave to the accompanying policeman after finding the dogs around the chalice in the woods met with little resistance. Most officers confessed to being extremely uneasy during the trek to the cave in the woods and after finding the dogs, which had run off chasing something a night before. The dogs had been arranged in a figure eight pattern. Human teeth was found in their throats. Exactly as the text describes. The Dark Force user spotted in the cave has not been found, despite repeated searches of the cave system.

ANALYSIS OF THE SORCERESS

Understanding what happens to the The Sith Lord at the end of the story is impossible without examination of the character of the Sorceress.

The Sorceress does not appear until the second third of the story, as she does in every other tale she appears in from the Book. Her first chronicled appearance is in "The Banished Town Guard and the Imprisoned Sorceress" the very first tale in the Book of the Flaming Swords. Little description is given of her past. The most we ever learn of her is in this passage from Tale 1, after the titular banished guard releases her:

"Thy release is a welcome one, having been chained to the unholy glass coffin

Which forced me to sleep yet not sleep and drink the bile

Of my own sins, which are many and calamitous.

I have no face, it having been robbed of me

By the demon skull on account of my wickedness.

I hail from the starry lands where the Roses

Grow thick and sharp, spreading like the tendrils

Of a thousand Cephs as they flutter in the ocean

Come, journey with me as I seek the form of a noble lady

And make our thoughts one. We shall be one.

All is one (CSMTEMEI RAE SWRENA HET)"

-Passage 15a, located next to platelet 1. (The Banished Town Guard releases the Sorceress, Artist unknown)

By the time we see her again in TEXT 404098, she has succeeded in her transfiguration (the nature of which is fiercely debated in academic circles)

"And the Sith Lord beheld the beauty of the Sorceress,

Beheld her twin blades, beheld the face of the noble lady

Who gave herself willingly to the alter

So that a Sinner might have another face.

'Surely' The Sith Lord remarked, transfixed

By the voluptuous Lady 'Such beauty does not belong

To a Sorceress, who even to the eyes of the Knave beside me

Bears the mark of the mental Necromancy'

And the Sorceress spake:

'Indeed. Though it shames me.'

One noble Lady, heart pure

And full of absolution by the Holy Force

Gave unto me her face, to replace the

Visage stolen by my unholiness and greed

All is one. Csmtemei Rae Swrena Het.'

-Passage 46g (No platelet.)

The Sith Lord justifiably is shocked, as the only time he has heard that quote before was from the Mad Padawan. He asks her if she and the Knave, as he refers to the Mad Padawan, have parlayed before. Her sincere answer of no, along with the previous discussion of ideas taking on a life of their own in one's mind, begins to make the Sith Lord wonder if they are right after all.

And to the complete lack of surprise to any Jedi reading this, he immediately begins to scheme how to use the art of Dark Dissemination, which will be covered in a later section.

ADDENDUM: When this passage was described to one of the surviving policeman, he went into shock due to the similarity of what he experienced after the Dark Force User hiding in the cave was encountered.

ATTACHMENT: Interview with Colonel Donval Konecht

Foreword by Gnost-Dural: I pray that Our esteemed Archeologist Morris will forgive yet another unfortunate but necessary intrusion into this report but I recently called in a few favors at Coruscant Media Archives and obtained this interview.

It's from a Holonet Interview given by Colonel Donval Konecht of Republic intelligence.

I inquired about Konecht to Republic Intelligence. They say they never heard of him. I'm not certain what to believe where that is concerned but I feel this interview was relevant to the topic at hand:

Announcer: Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen, to our main interview of the evening with Colonel Konecht who claims to have finally answered one of pop culture's longest running mysteries in regards to Dr. Thoden Geist's posthumous work "The Book of The Flaming Swords", a anthology horror novel about a collection of outer rim folk tales that some have accused of being an actual grimoire. Colonel Donval Konecht is a retired advisor to Republic military intelligence. Joining us as well is Doctor Helmut Landds, senior professor of Occult Theory and Practice At Coruscant Red Raven University. He is also the author of Occult Mantraps: Recognizing and Combatting subversive Cult thought.

Interviewer Karl Rog: Let's start with the history of the text itself, "The Book of The Flaming Swords", What do we know about it?

Dr. Landds: The Book of The Flaming Swords is the final posthumous work of Dr. Thoden Geist, a man who worked for years in the Republic's Propaganda department but then switching to writing fantasy anthology. He had multiple PHD's in Information transfer and Cultural Dissemination. He also had a notable taste for supposed books of magic.

Rog: So it was inevitable that such interests would eventually come together.

Colonel Konecht: Perhaps.

Rog: You disagree?

Konecht: Records from The Republic's Dark Age always were full of gaps.

Dr. Landds: He wrote several popular Anthologies, thirteen different book series, a most prolific author. Most Prolific.

Rog: He sounds very accomplished.

Konecht: Mr. Rog, Dr. Geist was one of the Republic's top propagandists, and believe me, Propaganda can help win a war. Knowing what I know of the book now, it is very unlikely Dr. Geist got into writing fantasy anthologies just for the hell of it.

Dr. Landds: On this the Colonel and I are in agreement.

Konecht: And not much else.

Rog: Gentlemen...

Konecht: Let the Doctor go first.

Dr. Landds: Dr. Geist was found dead in his study more than two hundred and seventy five years ago. All of the skin from the neck down was removed. Dr. Geist autopsy revealed that at the time of death he was intoxicated with multiple barbiturates, and traces of several different prescription painkillers were discovered in his blood. And in his skinless hands was the very first edition of "The Book of The Flaming Swords."

Dr Landds: Overnight the book and the dozen other editions found with him were confiscated. It was discovered a thirteenth copy had been made but it is currently unknown what happened to it. A suicide note in Dr. Geist's handwriting called the book his finest work and mentioned that he had sent multiple transcripts out across the Holonet as a final act of charity. Police swore up and down it was a homicide investigation until the Coroner reported that all wounds were self inflicted. Dr. Geist's lawyer sued the CSF to get the dozen first edition copies in police custody back, as they were now worth a fortune. Edition Zero appears to have been personally handwritten and illustrated by Dr. Geist himself.

Rog: What happened to his skin?

Dr. Landds: Unknown.

ADDENDUM BY GNOST-DURAL: Given the results of the text molecular analysis I think that isn't in question anymore.

Dr. Landds: The books are all unique. The illustrations in each book never exactly match each other. Nor are all of the tales exactly matching. Someone will go left in a scene rather than right. Someone will have an extra line of dialogue in one version of the tale when they don't in another version of the book with that same tale. Some Tales are shorter in one version then they are in another. But only in the sense that a scene or two may be missing, and very short ones at that. But the thing is, the tales have been composed in such a manner that the removal or addition of a scene or piece of dialogue can subtly or drastically change the interpretation of a story. Unless one has a complete familiarity with each subtlety altered version they will swear their mind is playing tricks on them should they read two completely different versions of the work. As the book is designated Public Domain in accordance with Dr. Geist's will and testament multiple versions have shown themselves in anonymous holonet forums, perhaps even transcripts of this very interview will show up in one of these forums someday to bolster the legend so to speak.

Konecht: And thus we reach the crux of the matter.

Dr. Landds: I have made a life of studying outer rim grimoires made by a thousand different cults on a thousand different planets. And while all are said to be dangerous if mishandled, I have never before seen a book so metaphysically treacherous. The book is designed to be mishandled. Mishandling and misinterpretation of it's contents is hard coded into the text. The entire book has been constructed as a self replicating, self reinforcing binding curse. A curse specially constructed by Dr. Geist for malicious reasons I have never been able to fathom.

Rog: The Jedi Order claims the book isn't cursed.

Konecht: That's because it isn't.

Rog: Your thoughts?

Konecht: Okay, Mr. Rog. Say for example this interview...

Rog: Go on.

Konecht: Imagine, for a second, that you'd never heard of this here book before you saw this interview or read a transcript. What would you think?

Rog: (Laughs) I would think something extremely odd was happening where this book was concerned.

Konecht: And you wouldn't be wrong.

Rog: You subscribe to a supernatural interpretation?

Konecht: Hardly. What I am trying to say is, if you just saw this interview, and read or saw nothing else about this book, your perception of that book would be slanted a certain way, subtly, from that point forward. An idea would develop in your mind, prejudging and evaluating the information you've been given. Even if the information is deemed nonsense and nonfactual, you're still developing an opinion on it.

Rog: I'm having difficulty following you.

Konecht: Ideas, Mr. Rog. Belief. Perception. All perception is manipulated by external and internal forces. A skilled person with understanding of how perception of an item or a thought can influence physical and emotional responses is one of the core principals that was no doubt stressed into Dr. Geist during his work as a propagandist for the government. When I first read a copy of Edition Zero, the one Geist was found clutching, I immediately identified it for what it was.

Rog: And that is?

Konecht: An insidious form of Social Engineering, utilizing subliminal programming common among gray and black propagandists skilled in information warfare. Remember that Dr. Geist was skilled in information dissemination and knowledgeable about how ideas are adopted by society.

Rog: You are saying this book is some sort of informational warfare device?

Konecht: Correct.

Dr. Landds: All books can be weapons in their own way.

Konecht: This is one of the few designed to be a weapon. In this case, a weapon designed to take advantage of the more suggestible amongst a populace. In this regard, it is a masterwork.

Konecht: He must have spent years perfecting it. This thing is constructed so that even indirect mention will aid in self propagation.

Rog: So this interview...

Konecht: (Smiles.) Yep, that's right.

Konecht: The book has been linked to several cases of murder, vandalism, destruction of property, use of heated cans to (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) as well as copycat crimes by various hate groups.

Dr. Landds: All deaths occurred specifically while trying to re-enact rituals and scenes from the book. There was a report of a woman who attempted divination and (Restricted by order of Satele Shan)

ADDENDUM: TEXT 404098 has been confirmed to be variation 6 of the tale.

INTERVIEW (CONTINUED)

Rog: I confess, Colonel, that I'm having a hard time believing a book-no matter how well constructed-can cause murder and death on this scale.

Konecht: Guitarist Rene Cem

Dr. Landds: Cem was murdered by a schizophrenic.

Konecht: And he justified it by saying he'd gotten the idea from a pamphlet he had read that claimed Cem was an incarnation of the Devil.

Dr. Landds: That's not the same thing.

Konecht: Isn't it? An idea took root in his mind, and spurned the ill man to action. Is that not what this book does? Cause an idea to take root in their mind, however indirectly and vaguely? Doesn't matter the size or format of an idea. Once a belief about something takes hold, it has succeeded. This tactic has been used in information warfare for thousands of years. Even the Jedi Art, Battle Meditation, works because you plant the notion in an enemy's mind that they can't win. Demoralization given form. Look how many people it has killed in the past.

Rog: Let's say you are right. Why would Doctor Geist create such a dangerous weapon? Why would he release it?

Konecht: I'm not entirely certain he did.

Rog: Explain.

Konecht: C'mon. A self inflicted suicide of that scale? Geist was murdered. Anybody, especially government, could have gotten to that Coroner.

Dr. Landds: For what purpose?

Konecht: Sowing chaos. Perhaps this is all a data gathering experiment, studying how we react to a self reinforcing crisis.

Dr. Landds: I take issue with the Colonel's theories.

Rog: Which part?

Dr. Landds: All of it. How could mere misinformation cause the events that have ended in multiple homicides replicate scenes from the book so perfectly?

Konecht: How do you think religious iconography and rituals get transmitted?

Dr. Landds: That alone does not explain the multiple irregularities behind your theory Colonel. Every time a death has occurred it has occurred in the immediate aftermath of re-enacting one of the Book's rituals. And every time a death has occurred, the manner has somehow, some way, no matter how improbable the odds or remote the location, corresponded to a scene in a tale, depending on the ritual. How do you account for that with your military science, Colonel?

Konecht: This book is extremely good at targeting a wide range of psychological types. Consider murder one for instance. Actuo Raymond. Re-enacted The Tusken Ritual, which involves (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) while slaughtering a Boma Beast. He was found with his hands (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) and his heart being held by (Restricted by order of Satele Shan) with a live Vaapaad atop it. Actuo was described as superstitious.

Dr. Landds: Magic requires superstion in order to work.

Konecht: And minds require information in order to act.

ADDENDUM BY GNOST-DURAL: The interview is only part one. The other parts have been misplaced by the Media Archives.

Satele, We should just burn this damn thing-Gnost.

END OF ATTACHMENT REPORT CONTINUES BELOW.

FOREWORD BY ARCHEOLOGIST MORRIS

This text as mentioned above is Variant Six.

In order to explain the error I made earlier in regards to not mentioning the fact there are thirteen different variations, ("Edition Zero"-1-12) It has been because I have so far encountered numerous difficulties in tracking the history of this book. Of the two hundred seventy five years the text has been extant, there are only perhaps twenty seven serious examinations of the book from Historians to Journalists that I have managed to uncover.

To clarify, I have uncovered that the official, annotated edition marketed to the public is in fact variation five. The public edition is without the original illustrations, which have either been lost to time or perhaps in the private collections of millionaire's and occultists jealously guarding what is admittedly a priceless artifact.

Another difficulty that hampered my investigation was that when Geist's death was discovered, the authorities went out of their way to avoid mentioning pertinent details in order to avoid what would have been a media frenzy. Information regarding the text was suppressed by the authorities and even then were reluctant to release the details of his suicide until everything had been worked out with the lawyers. It did not even become common knowledge that the text had thirteen different variations until two hundred years ago. Maybe thirteen articles about it were written by journalists alone. And then mainly as fluff pieces.

The remaining articles were written by book historians tracing the lineage of various texts after this fact became known.

All texts are judged by the few who have managed to get a glimpse of Edition Zero. The closer a particular text's variations are to Edition Zero in content and tone, The lesser the number is.

Variation Five was made known after an anonymous letter written by someone claiming to be a Sith Lord was delivered to Senator Rey Iblis. The letter is still stored in the Iblis Family personal vaults and I am currently making entreaties to Iblis Family Representative.

Variation 5 came with the letter. The book was was bound in the same material as TEXT 404098, indicating authenticity. The mainstream text I have mistakenly used was claimed by other, highly reputable specialists to be the only true copy, further obscuring the search for the truth.

But I have come across evidence that much information regarding The Book of The Flaming Swords has been systematically removed by either officials with connections or by other, more obscure parties. It is highly inconceivable that a text which has garnered such controversy should be so ill documented.

But here is where we encounter the ambiguity that has thus far frustrated the Jedi Order's efforts to classify it.

If the text were truly cursed, and, I must stress, that it is very, very, easy to believe this, given all that I have reported thus far. Then why, when the text was made available for public consumption, made Public Domain, have not more tragedies occurred? Why all these isolated incidents, which given the grand scheme of things is merely an abnormal statistic?

But, when the abnormal has occurred, why has it been so horrific? Why has it been that the deaths that have occurred correspond to the book?

On the surface, much of it seems to be the result of forward thinking and circumstance on the side of the perpetrators. Another odd feature in the crime is of the unusual spontaneity that occurred in the immediate lead up to whatever incident surrounds usage of the book. People have made snap judgments and decisions as events surrounding certain incidents have unfolded that seem impossible for the perpetrators to predict or manipulate.

Consider the Incident regarding (Entire section Restricted by order of Satele Shan, Council Eyes only). How could the eyeballs have ended up all in the same place on the same day? It's statistically impossible.

(Sections seven through nine in this report have been restricted by order of Satele Shan.)

Variation 5

It's the only version missing all of it's original illustrations. The artwork replacing them was done by Von Ditrik, who relied on the more colorful artwork of his home world Onderon rather than the Faux-Pius Dea style hieroglyphic illustrations the genuine texts use.

Variation six is notable in that it is the only version of ANY of them in which the The Chainmail Sith Lord is shown to be a tragic figure, albeit a subtle one. Only near the end does he become cognizant of where he senses his journey will lead him in this passage:

"Out of time and out of room to maneuver

My mighty Two-Hander, whom I took up

In a fit of rage at the Sky-Bladed Witch Men

Whom I had much to be aggrieved against."

-Passage 76f located next to platelet 46 (The Sith Lord clutches the Sorceress' hand for comfort, artist unknown)

It should be noted that when he and the other characters travel together to the cave, he has spent much of the story practicing Dark Dissemination in the form of attempting to convince the others the cave contained instead a terrible darkness that would consume all who entered it. The others disbelieve him, perhaps suggesting his understanding of the seemingly forbidden art the Mad Padawan and the Sorceress practice is imperfect, or rudimentary, or even that the art is not meant to be used in this manner (This fact lends itself to the possibility that the author is taunting with the reader with the possibility that any attempt to re-enact scenes or rituals without deeper understanding of what the author is trying to communicate is doomed to failure. This story is the only one to suggest that notion)

ANALYSIS OF THE MAD PADAWAN.

The Mad Padawan fits the role of the archetypal Fool. A Fool with Magic, but a fool nonetheless. He is the one that leads the Sith Lord to his doom.

In the climax of the tale, when the Sith Lord is now aware of his doom yet still attempts to cleanse himself in the powers of the cave by enacting the Bird Ritual which involves him shedding his armor, covering himself in feathers, and weeping into a basin, with the others onlooking and chanting "Csmtemei Rae Swrena Het" repeatedly before he uses the dogs he killed earlier to (Restricted by order of Satele Shan)

To his horror, instead of being cleansed of his sins and maladies The Mysterious Darkness that has killed the Sith Lord in every version of the tale shows, chanting the same as the others. He turns to the Mad Padawan, only for the Padawan to rebuff him:

"Aye, Thou hast doomed thyself, Witch-Man of the Unholy Force

The only Darkness that is present is that which Thou hast

Delivered via his own mentalism"

Passage 100, no platelet.

The Sith Lord is then carried away by the darkness in the tales final words "To a mysterious unknown elsewhere."

ADDENDUM: The Consular was badly shaken when this passage was described to him.

CONCLUSION

IS THE TEXT AND BOOK CURSED?

While I am well aware of the fact that this is the exact reason I was contacted by the Grandmaster, the fact is is that I have failed to shed light on the matter anymore than anyone else has, even though I will be practically forced to conclude something for official records. I can only admit that events surrounding the book have been extremely suspicious. While we are Jedi, and discerning evil is something all Jedi should be adept at, I fear that the nature of our work makes this a hopeless cause.

We are trained to fight the Dark Side. If this book is evil, we are not trained to fight it properly. Allow me to explain why by asking you this question: Does evil always require the Dark Side to manifest itself?

I believe it is because we are so used to identifying evil in terms of what we KNOW to be evil: Sith Spirits, Dark Side rituals, cackling men with rotting skin. But evil does not require any of that in order to be powerful.

I do not know if all the rumors I have uncovered when researching this book are true. I do not know if it's true that a man was said to have used the book on his wife for the purpose of (Restricted by order of Satele Shan). I do not know about any of that.

All I can say is that I do not like this book. I do not like the feel of unease when I read it. If it is cursed, why can't my senses detect anything?

Perhaps some evils are simply too subtle for the Force to detect. We can only detect them by the aftermath of their inception.

Based on the fact however, that I am forced to provide a clearcut answer, and given that, to the best of my knowledge, the entire text is false. It is in no way shape or form cursed as the Jedi traditionally understand it. The deaths that have occurred all have rational explanations in preplanning and perpetration by the criminals who enacted the rituals in the first place, especially the Dark Sider encountered on Alderaan, though I doubt he found it pleasant the result of his action.

The Book, and this text, despite it's oddness and strangeness, and the grisly history, is not cursed. Thus is my official conclusion. It in no way corresponds to the practices depicted in any known dark side text.

AFTERWARD BY ARCHEOLOGIST MORRIS

Destroy it Satele. Destroy it utterly. Burn it.

Satele Shan put down the report she had just finished in the privacy of her chambers editing. She glanced at the metal box the text recovered from the cave was locked in and then at the book they had found in that abandoned shack not far from the cave.

It was a simple black cover with a sword wreathed in orange flames inset into it. The book was large, with many pages.

Satele rose quietly, gathering the text from the box as well as the heavy book and approached the fireplace in her large chambers. She regarded the book, lip curling in disgust, and prepared to toss it into the flames.

It was only the corner of her eye noticing a page seemed to be out of alignment slightly that prevented her. Curious, she opened the book to the loose page.

She dropped it like it was radioactive.

One of the pages had gotten loose. An illustration.

It depicted a young man with green robes and a green saber staff-The Mad Padawan-holding the very book she was holding above a campfire while twirling his staff overhead.

The subtitle of the illustration, written in a calligraphy that reminded one of slithering serpents and tapeworms, was THE MAD PADAWAN USES THE FLAME RITUAL.

Her Com-link was out in seconds as she picked up the book and the text it had come from. "Gnost. My quarters. Now."

A few minutes later the Kel-Dor had arrived at her quarters.

"Why did you advise me to burn this book?" she asked.

The Kel-Dor stared at her in genuine confusion. "Pardon?"

"Both you and Morris advised me to destroy this book via flame. Explain this," Satele said, a bead of cold sweat running down her forehead.

"I never advised you to do that. And I would have reprimanded Morris if he had as well. Wait, did he give you the report before letting me see it?" Gnost asked.

"You mean you didn't leave this report in my chambers while I was away this afternoon?" she questioned keenly.

"No. I had no idea Morris was even finished. I had actually asked him to wait before starting about a week before today."

Satele looked at the book. "You have spoken to Morris since then?"

"No. I was held up by the malware some Padawan accidentally downloaded from the holonet terminals in the library," Gnost answered.

Satele went over to her round table and picked up the data pad containing the report. "Who wrote this?" she said under her breath.

"Satele, is this book cursed or not?"

"I don't know. But I want it out of this temple. This afternoon. And count the pages. I want them all accounted for," she ordered, practically shoving Text 404098 and the book into his hands.

Gnost merely nodded.

"And find Morris. I don't think he wrote the report I read. I want to know who did. Keep it quiet." she ordered.

Gnost nodded again and waited respectfully as Satele shut the turbo door.

He turned down the passage and by coincidence an open window nearby blew in a hollow, shrieking wind that startled Gnost, causing him to drop the book. The back cover flew open, and Gnost stared with slowly forming ice in his spine at the final sentence on the final page, written in that hideous slithering calligraphy:

YOU CANNOT DESTROY ME.


End file.
